Jenseits der Schwelle (?): Archivische Sicherung in den Kantonen St. Gallen, Basel-Stadt, Zürich und Wallis zwischen Theorie, Recht und Praxis

Abstract

These days archives are involved in a variety of ways beyond the "archival threshold", for example as specialised bodies in the field of records management or in making collections accessible. In some cases, there may also be challenges in the archival preservation of documents that are required by public authorities for a longer period of time or are subject to longer retention periods due to legal provisions. According to the paradigm of "post-custodialism", the archival theory debate has also addressed the question of what an archival practice "beyond the threshold" could look like in the age of (increasingly electronic) records. The article draws on the legal foundations and the oral and written exchange with state and public authority archives to examine the question of how the respective archival preservation is organised in the cantons of St. Gallen, Basel-Stadt, Zurich and Valais at the nexus between theory, law and practice. It shows that archives have by no means lost their fundamental importance as places of access to a country’s documentary heritage. Rather, the tried and tested principles of the formation of a documentary heritage must in certain cases be continually adapted to new circumstances without losing sight of the overriding goal, i.e. ensuring the formation of an authentic, integral and accessible documentary heritage.